Atta Mills, John Evans

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Atta Mills, John Evans, 1944–2012, Ghanaian lawyer, government official, and political leader, grad Univ. of Ghana (1967), London School of Economics (LL.M., 1968), School of Oriental and African Studies, London (Ph.D., 1971), Stanford Law School (Fulbright Scholar, 1971, Ph.D.). He taught law at the Univ. of Ghana (1971–91) and was Ghana's tax commissioner (1986–96); he also wrote several books on economic and tax matters. A member of the National Democratic Congress, he was selected as Jerry Rawlings 's running mate before the 1996 presidential elections and became Ghana's vice president. Rawlings's chosen successor, Atta Mills ran for president in 2000 and 2004, but lost both times to John Kufuor . He won the presidency in 2008 after narrowly defeating Nana Akufo-Addo in a runoff, and died while in office. He was succeeded by Vice President John Dramani Mahama .